1. Field Of The Invention
The present invention relates to artificial dentures, and more particularly of the type that the dental profession may adapt to the patient's mouth at a single sitting if desired.
2. Description Of The Prior Art
There are many people who have lost their natural teeth and who, for economic and other reasons, are unable to obtain arificial denture replacements through the services of professional dentistry. Many neglect having proper artificial denture replacements made because of the time consuming element since the fitting work normally requires a great many trips to the dentist's office before a proper and satisfactory fitting of the dentures can be completed.
It has been appreciated in the prior art that the time and costs associated with providing a set of dentures to a patient could be substantially reduced if the artificial or prosthetic denture were previously manufactured and the final fitting to the patient's mouth took place during one or two dental visits. By providing to the dental profession a prosthetic denture that has been previously manufactured on a mass production basis, and that only requires a final fitting to a respective patient, the advantages and cost savings of a mass produced product can be passed along to the patient.
One such form of prosthetic denture manufactured on a mass produced basis is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,839,796, issued to James M. Hazar, and discloses a denture to be individually fitted to the patient's mouth with a minimum of time involvement by the dentist. The present inventors have found that substantial improvement is obtained over the invention disclosed in the above referenced patent by providing palatal vault members that are either deflectibly formable or provided in a set of different shapes.
In the Hazar patent a palatal member is initially pressure molded having a specific configuration. This configuration is subsequently reheated by the dentist or other licensed denture delivery person, to remold the palatal member to conform to the palatal portion of the patient being fitted with dentures. It has been found that the palatal vault member has a memory to it such that when subsequently subjected to heated liquid above 150.degree. F., there is a softening thereof. Hot coffee can exceed 150.degree. F. Upon this reheating, the palatal vault member desires to return to its original configuration.
The present invention should not be confused with the disclosure in U.S. Pat. No. 2,685,133, issued to B. N. Greene et al, in which the inventors' desire to provide a system wherein the individual who is remote from a dentist, may perform those steps necessary to obtain the impression required to manufacture the dentures. In contrast the present invention permits the obtainment of a finished set of dentures with the patient present.
The present invention is adapted to provide the dentist with a greater degree of flexibility in producing the denture for the patient and the various advantages and distinctions of our invention over the prior art will become more clearly evident as the disclosure proceeds.